#but hey i'm not questioning it

[sageofanys]

[Secret Boss Spoilers for Octopath Traveler 2]

Negotiate Schedule

[rocketbirdie]

face value

[crabsnpersimmons]

i was possessed the other day to draw a cute little sunguy in this style

please enjoy this cute little sunguy as he goes out and enjoys some simple everyday joys like ice cream, moon plushies, and being ignored by a cat

[starry-bi-sky]

Blood Blossom Au: Baby's First Commissioner Meeting :)

TL:DR This Post: Danny (orphan) gets poisoned with blood blossom extract by Vlad. He runs away from him and ends up under the care of one Pre-Robin Battinson Batman! Starry is loudly pushing her batdad agenda.

(Also known as "Late At Night, When The Nightingale Sings" on my ao3!)

This was a fun rough idea I've been sitting on for weeks, thinking about how Commissioner Gordon and Nightingale's first meeting might go.

---------------

Commissioner Gordon likes to think that he's adjusting to the new normal of Gotham very well, -- the new normal being grown men running around dressed like bats, in military-grade strength body armor, committing acts of vigilantism, -- and slowly, little by little, he was no longer being surprised when this new normal pops up out of the shadows like the world's most terrifying daisy. His shaving lifespan thanks him for it.

....

The kid is a surprise though.

Granted, he seemed to be a surprise to the Bat too.

There's been a string of murders lately, -- which, in Gotham, is kind of like saying there's been another storm during monsoon season. And there's just been another; in some dilapidated building down in south Gotham, with the broken, boarded-up windows and mildew-crawling walls to match. The victim is a man in his thirties, multiple gunshot wounds to the chest, left in the center of the room for the blood to pool out around him.

The place is already secured when he arrives, the building swarmed with officers and the forensic detectives. The Bat emerges shortly after he does -- or, he might've been here the whole time, hiding someplace dark and shadowy. For his own sanity, Gordon doesn't think about it too hard.

The kid is a surprise, and he appears like a bolt of lightning.

He shows up in the middle of a conversation Gordon is having with the Bat.

A whistle, sharp and loud, slicing through the air, meant for open air rather than a confined space. Gordon's ears pierce and protest the sound, and the solemn, murmured chatter floating through the room abruptly cuts off like the swing of a gavel. As he turns towards the sound -- as they all do -- he swears, up and down, that he sees Batman's shoulders jump, just slightly.

At the source, perched on the window, is a boy. A boy in a gray-blue scarf and an oversized black hoodie, one that hangs off his frame and has ace bandages wrapped around the wrists in some attempt to cinch the sleeves. The hood is up, big like the rest of it, and threatens to swallow the upper half of the boy's face whole in the fabric. What upper half Gordon can see, is smeared with some kind of opaque, black face paint. He's holding onto the side of the frame with one hand, on his hip is a grappling hook. A familiar grappling hook.

Gordon has multiple questions, and his officers tense up.

Martinez puffs up, brows furrowing as his face shapes into a frown. Shoulders rolling back. "You can't be here, kid--"

The reaction is immediate, like a spark to gunpowder, the boy yanks his fingers from his mouth and his mouth twists into a scowl. Head snapping over to Officer Martinez, his hood manages to stay on but Gordon swears that as he bares his teeth, the glint makes them look sharper than they should be. His voice is rasp and quiet and harsh; snappish in its hissing; "Put a fuckin sock in it, Martinez. I'm not stayin."

Martinez reels back, and the boy immediately veers his attention off him. Like a switch, his demeanor drops. Despite half his face being covered, his mouth twists into a cringing, apologetic smile. Slanted and off-beat, embarrassed. It'd be disarming if this wasn't Gotham, and if he didn't just hiss at Martinez like he was about to bite his head off.

"Sorry." He whispers, voice deceptively polite and softer now. Gordon has to strain his ears to hear him. "I was looking for him."

He points his finger towards-- Gordon? No, Gordon follows the direction, and finds himself looking at -- the Bat.

The Bat, who always looks stiff as a pole, now looks even stiffer. Somehow. Well, the explains the grappling hook attached to the boy's waist.

"What are you doing here?" The Bat says, gruff and unable to completely smother the stumble of surprise in his tone.

The boy still holds a sheepish smile, and slips off the window ledge. His feet hit the creaky boards with a near-silent thud, the Batman finds his feet and rapidly begins crossing the room.

Gordon notes the slight tremble in the boy's legs as he straightens. He adjusts his scarf, which droops close to his knees now that he's standing, and slings a backpack -- how long has had that? -- off his shoulders. When the Bat reaches his side, he does as he always does, and looms over the boy like a spectre. A threatening mass of shadows cloaked in all-consuming black. Standing next to him, the boy looks teeny in comparison.

The Bat is a man who terrifies even the most hardened criminals, Gordon has seen grown men shiver in fear at the mention of his name. And yet when the boy looks up at him, he doesn't even flinch.

Instead, his sheepish smile melts away like ice under the sun, holding only traces of his previous embarrassment. It remains as a shadow on his face, a small upturn at the corners of his mouth. The boy pushes his hood back just enough to reveal glinting, ice-flint eyes surrounded in tar-black face paint. He holds the backpack up with one arm. "You forgot this."

[knifearo]

ultimately when it comes to shipping and fandom space treatment of aspec characters i just don't accept "aro/ace people can still date/have sex" as an answer from nonaspecs. like yeah. mhm. okay. now i think we both know that you're not saying that out of real interest in the diversity of aspec experiences. so you can turn in your seventeen-page essay on why and how you plan to examine this character's aspec identity within the context of a romantic or sexual relationship complete with evidence from canon and peer reviews from multiple aspec people within the next week or i'm putting you in the pit from the edgar allen poe story

[weaver-z]

Danger? Heh. Danger is my deadname. I'm actually really scared,

[teratomatica]

everything i wish i had said

[gilfodile]

let's lament

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

ORV is about enduring the horrors in real time.

(for @everyonesfavoritebastard)

[zoya-nazyalenskys]

my biggest critique of veilguard is why is rook the hero of the story? like literally why are all these people even listening to rook who is literally nothing but some rando? how can the organisations of minrathous/treviso (especially minrathous that has that giant magic palace in the sky) not fight off a single dragon but rook, one singular person with absolutely zero special abilities, can?

[the-way-astray]

i've seen a fair amount of people that have a take that's something along the lines of "alden isn't abusive/toxic/a bad parent but i like exploring that in fic, so i often characterize him like that anyway" and i'm so curious as to why these people are not extending this same purposeful character assassination to other parents, like grady, or even kesler, and why it seems to be an only alden thing /gen

[happylandfill23]

the confuser 🪩

(youtube link lmao)

[writeouswriter]

You know what, this "actually writing" thing is really fun, someone should tell my adhd that 'cause it still doesn't believe me.

[mirokuna-hime]

I honestly think people are jumping the gun with their disappointment over the new story quest in 1.2

The whole purpose of Xianzhou Luofu arc is to set up future events.

The writers tell us this by having Kafka admit to the MC that the whole point of this operation for the stellaron hunters is to have the Xianzhou indepted to the Astral Express crew so that they will aid them in their fight against Nanook the destruction.

Herta Space Station and Jarilo-IV were used to introduce us to the game mechanics and to establish the trio of Dan Heng, March 7th and the Trailblazer with the Space Station also serving as a prologue.

Jarilo-IV however did nothing to develop the overarching main plot of the game. Belobog was it's own self contained arc to ease the player into the game and they are now using the Xianzhou Luofu arc to plant the seeds for future chapters.

People are already calling Blade a wasted character, because his confrontation with Imbibitor Lunae didn't play out like people hoped it would, because they didn't drop his entire backstory in this quest even though it's pretty clear that Blade, Kafka and Silverwolf will be reoccuring antagonists over the course of the story.

The prologue already introduced us to Kafka and Silverwolf, heck Silverwolf even got her own event.

Introducing Blade and his connection to Dan Heng to the player is what I would argue the other focal point of this arc. Every theme this story introduced to us can be connected to Blade (immortality being a sin, what it means to be mara struck, manipulation, the weight of our past actions and how we deal with them etc.), it's so that we can understand his story and motive.

Not to mention that it opens the door for character development and development of Dan Hengs and his relationship. Right now Dan Heng doesn't make the connection that Blade is his previous incarnations "friend" (in quotation marks because hoyoverse is being sussy with them) and he's still running away from the past. Meanwhile Blade is consumed by his vengence, his desire to die and he is also getting manipulated by Kafka (admittedly she kinda has to because of the Mara but that barely changes anything other than making us see her in a bit more positive light).

All points that will need to be adressed in following installments and I have faith in the Honkai writers to do these plot points justice, but it won't be right now.

We are in 1.2 my friends, let the story take it's time.

[birch-shark-art]

Starting off with the piece in my icon! Seems fitting.

I've gotten really into pottery this year -- it's the impetus for this blog, to be honest -- and while I won't be posting only pottery here, that's definitely likely to be the bulk of what I talk about. Because I'm very into it, and because I'm having a lot of fun with it and reasonably proud of most of the stuff I make, and because it's a hobby that produces a whole lot of physical objects.

This is one of the first pieces I made this summer, and the first one I was really satisfied with. Sure, it's got some wobbles and flaws, but I like the shape and I love how the design came out. I had grass/wheat designs in mind early on, but I tried the colored slip + sgraffito on a whim and a teacher's suggestion.

[markantonys]

i remember seeing this post used with elaida being raised amyrlin by the sitters, but it is also very much taim being appointed head of the black tower by rand